The five winners will get their SmartDNS and VPN, along with the choice of the Roku Streaming Stick or ChromeCast beginning on August 25 and ending on September 28. You have to be 18 years of age to enter the contest and you have to be enrolled in a technical university or a two-or four-year college program to participate.

If you aren’t particularly familiar with either of these services, there are very good reasons that somebody heading off to college might want to subscribe to them after their free month has expired, or even if they’re not a winner.

SmartDNS

SmartDNS is used to allow you to watch content that is Geo restricted, no matter where you are. If you happen to be in a nation where some television shows are not allowed to stream or some movie streaming services are not allowed at all, you can oftentimes use the service to get around the geographical restrictions on the content and watch it as if you were in an allowed nation. It doesn’t offer you the same level of protection that a VPN connection does, however, which can provide the same service, but with additional features.

The VPN component of OverPlay’s offerings allows you to encrypt your connection completely. Using the SmartDNS server might be more convenient for watching television shows, but the VPN will make sure that nobody is able to monitor your communications when you are online. For people heading off to schools, particularly those living in dorms, this is a great security advantage.

Back to School Needs

If you are heading off to college, the convenience of being able to watch whichever streaming services you subscribe to and the additional security that a VPN can provide are both excellent investments. They are also both very inexpensive. Getting these services allows you to use your computer better for entertainment and, when you’re doing something serious, to make sure it’s a lot more secure. The contest starts on August 25, so sign up soon to participate.